One of my current projects is a utility device for magic. I had a version that worked for me, then I sent out some to other magicians and am learning that not everyone works like I work. That means that I need tweaking the design further than how I’d do it. That led me to … Continue reading “Building a Better Mouse Trap…”
One of my current projects is a utility device for magic. I had a version that worked for me, then I sent out some to other magicians and am learning that not everyone works like I work. That means that I need tweaking the design further than how I’d do it.
That led me to a challenge this week. I hit a roadblock that I didn’t think I’d be able to overcome. I kept thinking about it, and it hit me yesterday while driving, “a mouse trap”! I needed a spring, and the spring in a mousetrap was almost exactly what I needed.
I bought a mousetrap took it apart and it worked perfectly! The next challenge was figuring out how to integrate that spring into the prop. I sat down at the computer and this is what I came up with:
The picture above was used in the first version of the big redesign. In less than 18 hours I’m on design number four and it’s all little things I’m tweaking to make it more efficient and elegant! We’ll see what today has in store for redesigning…
Right now I’m a couple days deep into over a week off, no shows until next Wednesday! While enjoying my time off, I came across a video of Doc Docherty‘s routine for the Gozinta Boxes. The Gozinta Boxes were created by Lubor Fielder and the effect is a red box fits inside a black box, … Continue reading “Great Effect for a Bad Trick…”
Right now I’m a couple days deep into over a week off, no shows until next Wednesday! While enjoying my time off, I came across a video of Doc Docherty‘s routine for the Gozinta Boxes. The Gozinta Boxes were created by Lubor Fielder and the effect is a red box fits inside a black box, then the black box fits inside the red box.
Here’s a video of David Ginn doing the Gozinta Box:
What I don’t like about the trick in it’s purest form, is that it’s more of a puzzle than a magic trick and really lacks a magic moment. Then I think Tenyo put out ParaBox which had the production of sponge balls, which I think took the trick from a puzzle to a magical puzzle!
Here’s Paul Daniels doing Parabox:
Comparing the Parabox to the Gozinta Box, I feel it’s a huge leap. The thing that’s lacking with the Parabox is producing sponge balls isn’t a huge production. You are making something that can be squished down appear. A sponge ball is better than no production, but something solid would be much better. Let’s get back to Doc Docherty, and his version called In Through the Outbox, which you can watch below:
The productions of the solid pieces of metal are great and takes the routine to an impossible level. I think it’s a great addition to the trick and really cool! One thing that I’d change with it is the pacing of the productions and do them one at a time. I think it’s be stronger to produce one block get the reaction, prove it’s solid and then produce the second one. Once you’ve established what the first one is, you don’t need to prove the second one is solid. However as is I think it’s a great magic trick.
If my roving consisted of more than an deck of cards, a few coins and the shell game, this is a trick that I’d do!
Right now I’m reading the book Be More Funny by Christoper T. Magician. When it arrived, I was amazed at how thick of a book it is, most comedy magic books aren’t nearly this heavy. Currently I’m about a hundred pages into it and am liking it! One of the things he says in the … Continue reading “Character Mash Up…”
Right now I’m reading the book Be More Funny by Christoper T. Magician. When it arrived, I was amazed at how thick of a book it is, most comedy magic books aren’t nearly this heavy. Currently I’m about a hundred pages into it and am liking it!
One of the things he says in the beginning is to find a character, you take two things and put them together. Essentially it’s magician plus something else, so basically a charcater mash up. Once you have that angle everything else starts to get easier.
This got me thinking a little bit about character and one thing that has grown in my performing persona is travelling. I talk a lot more about travelling, so what if my performing character was magician PLUS travel show host? I already talk about many of my adventures in my preshow, and it’s part of the hook in many of my routines, so why not dig deeper?
Travel is something I’m personally very passionate about…I love finding strange things in off the beaten path places. For example a couple weeks ago I was performing in Menlo, WA, and that town has a pioneer buried there under very interesting circumstances. That person is Willie Keil, also known as the “Pickled Pioneer“. Essentially his body was moved cross country in a coffin filled with wiskey to preserve it.
When I travel for shows, I always find things like this and am surprised at how many locals are unaware of it. In my shows try to write little jokes about them. After I told the story about Willie, the joke went:
“Do you know what they call a modern day person that crosses the country full of whiskey? A Delta Airline Pilot!”
It’s great that this book made me realize that this is something that my character on stage has grown into, and I’m going to explore it a little bit more and start seeing what turns up!
For the last seven days I’ve been performing at a fair that’s about an hour from my house. That means I was able to drive to the fair instead of flying and that allowed me to bring some bigger props. One of the bigger things that I brought was my flea circus. The biggest challenge … Continue reading “Get Them Invested…”
For the last seven days I’ve been performing at a fair that’s about an hour from my house. That means I was able to drive to the fair instead of flying and that allowed me to bring some bigger props. One of the bigger things that I brought was my flea circus.
The biggest challenge I have doing the flea circus as a roving act is there’s a portion of the crowd that I stop that only wants to know if there are real fleas. That’s it, and the second they learn they are real, they will walk. I personally don’t hold this against them, however I goal is to get them invested, so they don’t walk.
What I started doing last week was a much longer talk up to the first actual circus trick. In this talk up I do the Haunted Deck card trick, which is a “demonstration” of a flea training technique. There is no card picked, the flea simply moves the cards. During this talk up, the crowd builds, that anchors in people, so it’s harder for them to leave.
Another thing I’ve been doing is having the crowd say things. This gets them invested into the show, they’ve put energy into the show. Between the talk up and more participation they amount of people that walk once they realize there are no fleas is much less. I’m happy about that!
One of the things that I’m always on the lookout for are quirks that I can exploit for a magic trick. Ideally small things that people don’t notice, or things that they accept and don’t think about. In this month’s Genii Magazine I have a magic trick and it’s based on something small that I … Continue reading “Unusual Magic…”
One of the things that I’m always on the lookout for are quirks that I can exploit for a magic trick. Ideally small things that people don’t notice, or things that they accept and don’t think about. In this month’s Genii Magazine I have a magic trick and it’s based on something small that I noticed and turned into a magic trick!
What happened was a long time ago I noticed that when you take a picture with your phone’s front facing camera, Instagram takes is as a mirror image. That means that any text will appear backwards in the picture. This is a small thing and everyone accepts it and no one thinks about it.
I love tricks that involve manipulating an image on someone else’s cellphone, and this quirk in Instagram is a great thing to exploit. I learned a long time ago that people don’t really look at specific things (other than themselves) in selfie style pictures. If you have something that looks right before the picture and is the same basic shape in the camera’s screen, their brain doesn’t really process it and fills it in with what they expect to see.
The basic principle for using someone else’s camera has three parts. First you show them the object and then switch it for a similar one. Second you take a picture of the switched object. Finally you switch the object back to the original one. To them, nothing has changed, you simply then do your magic and alter the picture. Now go out and do some phone magic!
The last few weeks I’ve added a few new things into the show. Yesterday at the fair some friends and amazing performers watched my show and gave me some great input into the new routines. Having someone watch your show with a fresh set of eyes is amazingly helpful! Having an ad hoc team of … Continue reading “It Takes a Village…”
The last few weeks I’ve added a few new things into the show. Yesterday at the fair some friends and amazing performers watched my show and gave me some great input into the new routines. Having someone watch your show with a fresh set of eyes is amazingly helpful!
Having an ad hoc team of people to help you create and refine make it soo much easier. You will get to the solution or a great new idea a lot quicker than when you do it alone. Everyone brings their preferences, biases, and life experience to the table, and that insanely helpful!
Find yourself a team and start swapping notes, you’ll be amazed at how fast and quickly your routines will grow!
While scrolling through facebook, I saw that Dom Chambers got passed through to the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent. This was of interest to me as I had made a prop for him to use on the show. Here’s video of his act from AGT last night: He uses my Evaporation trick to pour the … Continue reading “Fun Surprise!!!”
While scrolling through facebook, I saw that Dom Chambers got passed through to the semi-finals of America’s Got Talent. This was of interest to me as I had made a prop for him to use on the show.
Here’s video of his act from AGT last night:
He uses my Evaporation trick to pour the beer into the video screen. The bottle was custom made for his act. It was a fun project, and I’m always glad to see people use magic that I’ve created!
If you notice a problem in your show and it’s an easy fix, fix it. I know this, yet I didn’t do it yesterday. During my preshow I knew my mic cord was going bad, it was making crackly noises. I also had a new cord in my case, so I really didn’t have a … Continue reading “Do It Now…”
If you notice a problem in your show and it’s an easy fix, fix it. I know this, yet I didn’t do it yesterday. During my preshow I knew my mic cord was going bad, it was making crackly noises. I also had a new cord in my case, so I really didn’t have a good reason to not replace it. Then about 5 mins into the show, the crackly noises were too frequent and I had to stop the show to change the cord.
Had I decided to change the cord before the show started the show, I wouldn’t have had to stop the show as I was beginning to build some momentum. The lesson is take the minute and fix things that you know you will have to fix and not put it off. Nothing good can come of putting it off…especially when you have time to address it before it’s a problem.
Replacing the cord has put me in a situation where I now only have one back up cord. So the question is, do I order more now, or later? I do have a back up, but will eventually need more…
The Card To Wallet is a pretty standard effect for close up magicians. It’s also one that’s part of my “card set“, so I’m very familiar with it. Normally the card comes out of my wallet as a surprise, but the last few weeks I’ve been playing with different presentations for the trick. The results … Continue reading “Surprise for the WIN!!!”
The Card To Wallet is a pretty standard effect for close up magicians. It’s also one that’s part of my “card set“, so I’m very familiar with it. Normally the card comes out of my wallet as a surprise, but the last few weeks I’ve been playing with different presentations for the trick. The results really surprised me.
The first thing I’ve been playing with is mentioning that I have a lucky card and it’s the same one they picked…and I drew the same picture on my lucky card that’s in my wallet. I tell them I’m joking and it’d be amazing if it was in there. I then complete my card routine and the card comes out of my wallet. I’m foreshadowing the surprise ending. This gets about the same reaction as ending with the card coming out a surprise.
The second thing I”ve been trying starts out the same as the first one, however I’m showing them the back of the card in my wallet. Then later the card in the wallet is their card. In my head this is a better trick because their card is there the whole time…however this one falls flat and gets just an okay reaction.
The result of my testing is that the surprise element makes a huge difference in the appearance of the card. Showing them the back of the card and telling them it’s their card, then doing some amazing card magic, it’s not a huge leap when that card is theirs. The audience not expecting it in the wallet helps.
When I’m out performing and I encounter someone that wants to chat, whenever possible I always try to hear their story. Last week I was performing at a fair and ran into a guy named Dean Lewis. We started to chat, and I was glad I made time for him! Dean used to get animals … Continue reading “Always Stop to Chat…”
When I’m out performing and I encounter someone that wants to chat, whenever possible I always try to hear their story. Last week I was performing at a fair and ran into a guy named Dean Lewis. We started to chat, and I was glad I made time for him!
Dean used to get animals from around the world for zoos and circuses. He also ran an oddity shop in a nearby town. The next day I went over and visited his shop, and got to go through his scrapbook. The guy had lived an amazing life! Here’s a little article about him from a local newspaper:
At the fair he also showed me a little magic trick:
By talking to people after shows I’ve learned a ton of things. Not just life stories, but magic techniques. One time I had an old timer teach me how to table faro, and another time I learned a lasso trick. It’s always worth taking a minute and chatting to people.
